In order to remain on top of the rapid changes in the international environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence have tasked The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) to conduct research on global trends and risks, within the framework of the Strategic Monitor. Over the past few years HCSShas provided for on-going analysis of relevant trends and conducted foresight exercises. Please find an overview of all Strategic Monitor reports below.

In order to remain on top of the rapid changes in the international environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence have tasked The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) to conduct research on global trends and risks, within the framework of the Strategic Monitor. Over the past few years HCSShas provided for on-going analysis of relevant trends and conducted foresight exercises. Please find an overview of all Strategic Monitor reports below.

For more information about the Strategic Monitor 2018, please click here.

Click on the image to download the PDF.

2016-2017 Volatility and Friction in the Age of Disintermediation

2015-2016: The Wheel of Fortune: Up and Down, Round and Round, Faster and Faster

2014-2015: The Return of Ghosts Hoped Past? Global Trends in Conflict and Cooperation

2013-2014: Four Strategic Challenges

2012-2013: De Toekomst in Alle Staten

Other reports part of the StratMon program that focus on specific topics:

The Vital European and Dutch Security Interests Alert considers key security discourses of principal stakeholders concerning vital European and Dutch security interests. Documents such as the Strategie Nationale Veiligheid, de Internationale Veiligheidsstrategie, Defense Strategy publications, the NATO Strategic Concept and the EU Global Strategy serve as the basis for this Alert.

The Vital European and Dutch Security Interests Alert considers key security discourses of principal stakeholders concerning vital European and Dutch security interests. Documents such as the Strategie Nationale Veiligheid, de Internationale Veiligheidsstrategie, Defense Strategy publications, the NATO Strategic Concept and the EU Global Strategy serve as the basis for this Alert. Based on a monthly summary of emerging affairs gathered through an annotated list of publications from think tanks, academic outlets, and expert blogs, the Alert also considers more specific issues as they emerge in the Dutch security discourse.

May 25th marks the first visit of U.S. President Trump to Europe. It will also be the first time the newly-elected U.S. President will attend a NATO gathering. Besides opening NATO’s new headquarters, leaders will discuss NATO’s burden sharing, counterterrorism actions and tense relations with Russia. High on the meeting’s agenda will be the 2% GDP defense spending pledge, a topic that has dominated NATO’s airwaves again since President Trump took office.

May 25th marks the first visit of U.S. President Trump to Europe. It will also be the first time the newly-elected U.S. President will attend a NATO gathering. Besides opening NATO’s new headquarters, leaders will discuss NATO’s burden sharing, counterterrorism actions and tense relations with Russia. High on the meeting’s agenda will be the 2% GDP defense spending pledge, a topic that has dominated NATO’s airwaves again since President Trump took office. The US administration has been clear about its demand for its European partners to spend more of their national budgets on defense and adhere to the Wales 2% GDP spending pledge. The EU-NATO partnership has meanwhile gained in importance. The potential of enhanced cooperation between the EU and NATO is clear: more efficient defense spending will yield both more and better capabilities, and in turn boost NATO’s defense posture. This alert sets out the key strategic challenges and opportunities and offers four recommendations for the leaders of state meeting in Brussels.

Read the alert by downloading the document via the button on the right.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on everybody’s minds these days. Most of the world’s leading companies are making massive investments in it. Governments are scrambling to catch up. Every single one of us who uses Google Search or any of the new digital assistants on our smartphones has witnessed first-hand how quickly these developments now go. Many analysts foresee truly disruptive changes in education, employment, health, knowledge generation, mobility, etc. But what will AI mean for defense and security?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on everybody’s minds these days. Most of the world’s leading companies are making massive investments in it. Governments are scrambling to catch up. Every single one of us who uses Google Search or any of the new digital assistants on our smartphones has witnessed first-hand how quickly these developments now go. Many analysts foresee truly disruptive changes in education, employment, health, knowledge generation, mobility, etc. But what will AI mean for defense and security?

In a new study HCSS offers a unique perspective on this question. Most studies to date quickly jump from AI to autonomous (mostly weapon) systems. They anticipate future armed forces that mostly resemble today’s armed forces, engaging in fairly similar types of activities with a still primarily industrial-kinetic capability bundle that would increasingly be AI-augmented. The authors of this study argue that AI may have a far more transformational impact on defense and security whereby new incarnations of ‘armed force’ start doing different things in novel ways. The report sketches a much broader option space within which defense and security organizations (DSOs) may wish to invest in successive generations of AI technologies. It suggests that some of the most promising investment opportunities to start generating the sustainable security effects that our polities, societies and economies expect may lie in in the realms of prevention and resilience. Also in those areas any large-scale application of AI will have to result from a preliminary open-minded (on all sides) public debate on its legal, ethical and privacy implications. The authors submit, however, that such a debate would be more fruitful than the current heated discussions about ‘killer drones’ or robots. Finally, the study suggests that the advent of artificial super-intelligence (i.e. AI that is superior across the board to human intelligence), which many experts now put firmly within the longer-term planning horizons of our DSOs, presents us with unprecedented risks but also opportunities that we have to start to explore.

The report contains an overview of the role that ‘intelligence’ - the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world - has played in defense and security throughout human history; a primer on AI (what it is, where it comes from and where it stands today - in both civilian and military contexts); a discussion of the broad option space for DSOs it opens up; 12 illustrative use cases across that option space; and a set of recommendations for - especially - small- and medium sized defense and security organizations.

The nexus between natural resources and security needs to be better understood and more closely monitored. Climate change exacerbates environmental challenges and natural resources scarcity which are contributing factors to the onset of political violence both within and between states. A more granular grasp of the dynamics involved in these risk multipliers through the use of integrated datasets will allow for enhanced situational awareness and enable timely action.

The nexus between natural resources and security needs to be better understood and more closely monitored. Climate change exacerbates environmental challenges and natural resources scarcity which are contributing factors to the onset of political violence both within and between states. A more granular grasp of the dynamics involved in these risk multipliers through the use of integrated datasets will allow for enhanced situational awareness and enable timely action. It requires concerted action and closer coordination by vital political, military, diplomatic and societal stakeholders from the public and private sector across the globe. This Issue Brief summarizes the key takeaways of a meeting of a Global Expert Group that convened at the Future Force Conference held in The Hague, the Netherlands, in February 2017. The Brief highlights the contributions by principal experts from the panel and the audience and outlines ten recommendations for future action.

At the Paris Climate Conference held in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement – the first universal, legally binding global climate deal. The signatory parties committed themselves to a global action plan that aims to keep global warming to well below 2°C and to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C.

At the Paris Climate Conference held in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement – the first universal, legally binding global climate deal. The signatory parties committed themselves to a global action plan that aims to keep global warming to well below 2°C and to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C.

As part of our Geo-Economics research initiative, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies has investigated the geopolitical consequences of climate mitigation and energy transition among a number of countries richly endowed in hydrocarbons who potentially stand to lose a significant part of their revenue stream as a result of demand changes for fossil fuels. If demand for oil and gas demand were to decrease as a result of successful climate mitigation policies, the financial and social stability of these countries will – ceteris paribus – be negatively affected, especially if they fail to reform their domestic economies.

The presented study, entitled The Geopolitical Impact of Climate Mitigation Policies, employs a number of innovative investigative methods and analytical approaches to generate insights regarding sociopolitical stability in the wake of the world’s transition to renewable energy systems in a number of major oil- and gas-exporting nations near Europe. On top of this, the report looks closely at the energy situation in Sub-Saharan Africa and analyzes in detail which choices developing nations face with respect to their future energy mix.

Given the deep, and complex relationship between the global energy sector and international politics, these findings have numerous implications – both short and long term – for our future efforts to combat climate change while simultaneously fending off any consequential drivers of sociopolitical instability.

During the North Atlantic Council in Warsaw of 8-9 July 2016, NATO declared that its essential mission is unchanged. It was also stated that NATO will ensure that it has the full range of capabilities necessary to deter and defend against potential adversaries and the full spectrum of threats that could confront the Alliance from any direction.

During the North Atlantic Council in Warsaw of 8-9 July 2016, NATO declared that its essential mission is unchanged. It was also stated that NATO will ensure that it has the full range of capabilities necessary to deter and defend against potential adversaries and the full spectrum of threats that could confront the Alliance from any direction.

Cyberattacks present a clear challenge to the security of the Alliance and could be as harmful to modern societies as a conventional attack. For that reason, the Member States agreed in Warsaw that cyber defense is part of NATO's core task of collective defense and NATO's defensive mandate, and that cyberspace is recognized as a separate domain of operations in which NATO must defend itself as effectively as it does in the air, on land, and at sea. Furthermore, it will ensure more effective organization of NATO's cyber defense and better management of resources, skills, and capabilities.

HCSS conducted research on both the concept of Cyberspace as a Domain for NATO and on the question whether the existing NATO cyberspace capabilities cover the whole spectrum of those required as a result of recognizing cyberspace as a domain of operations.

The research results are available at HCSS. The report is not available for the public.

There are all kinds of new applications in development today that make increasingly smarter use of Big Data. Take for example the recent announcements that judicial decisions can be predicted by computers. In the security domain there are numerous possibilities to use these technologies too. At the same time the security domain bears the risk of exclusion and inducing mistrust among the civilian population regarding the limitless use of personal data. This report outlines how to develop technologies responsibly for this challenging domain.

There are all kinds of new applications in development today that make increasingly smarter use of Big Data. Take for example the recent announcements that judicial decisions can be predicted by computers. In the security domain there are numerous possibilities to use these technologies too. At the same time the security domain bears the risk of exclusion and inducing mistrust among the civilian population regarding the limitless use of personal data. This report outlines how to develop technologies responsibly for this challenging domain.

Big Data is the next great opportunity for security organizations and individuals alike. The idea is to feed a computer with large amounts of data in order to perform faster and more accurate analyses and create a real-time, situational understanding of security situations. At this point however, the technological developments remain in a state of flux.

The authors hope to inspire the reader and increase awareness as well as provide insights into how to develop responsible Big Data applications for security.

This report provides a description of technological developments and explains how these developments can be used to support more responsible, effective and efficient security.

Three of the most prevailing observations are:

Big Data and High Performance Computing have a very large set of multifaceted capabilities to contribute to security.

For the acceptance of the applications, society, public organizations and the corporate business world should establish a framework on the eligibility of these developments.

Decisions affecting humanity are increasingly being taken by computers, which raises tremendous responsibility regarding the correctness and ethical values represented in Artificial Intelligence.

The observations evoke, among others, the following five questions that will be addressed in this report:

Digitalization has taken a predominant role in the Netherlands. The Netherlands considers itself one of the leading ICT countries, promotes itself as ‘a safe place to do business’ and aspires to be the digital gateway of Europe. This report will first estimate the current and prospective size of the Dutch digital economy and the ICT sector, and later analyze how much the latter contributes to the national economy.

Digitalization has taken a predominant role in the Netherlands. The Netherlands considers itself one of the leading ICT countries, promotes itself as ‘a safe place to do business’ and aspires to be the digital gateway of Europe. This report will first estimate the current and prospective size of the Dutch digital economy and the ICT sector, and later analyze how much the latter contributes to the national economy. Next, we provide a holistic overview of the current level of public and private investments in cybersecurity, followed by an analysis estimating the Dutch cybersecurity market by comparing different studies.

Taking into account the 1,5% loss of its national GDP to cybercrime, which correlates well to the €10bn value loss through cyber risk in the Netherlands, the Dutch private sector, and especially the government, can invest more in cybersecurity to reduce the impact and damage cybercrime and –risks. In addition, there is a drastic increase in demand anticipated for cybersecurity experts and IoT developers. As a result, when this is solved, one might conclude that the investments in cybersecurity will exceed the 10% norm.

This research is directed to the National Cyber Testbed Initiative of The Hague Security Delta (December 2016).

Events unfolded once again at a swirling pace in 2016. Terrorists hit Europe’s capital in March. The British population voted for Brexit in June. Turkish armed forces failed to topple Erdoğan in July. A resurgent Russia flexed its military muscles again in the Middle East and actively interfered in American elections, in which the American population elected Trump, in November. We are worried but certainly not surprised by the volatility of contemporary international relations.

Events unfolded once again at a swirling pace in 2016. Terrorists hit Europe’s capital in March. The British population voted for Brexit in June. Turkish armed forces failed to topple Erdoğan in July. A resurgent Russia flexed its military muscles again in the Middle East and actively interfered in American elections, in which the American population elected Trump, in November. We are worried but certainly not surprised by the volatility of contemporary international relations. In previous editions of our contribution to the Dutch government’s Strategic Monitor, we already observed a surge in assertive behavior, noted a dangerous uptick in crises, and warned for the contagiousness of political violence.

The current volatility is not a coincidence, but rather the result of fundamental disturbances of the global order that are greatly amplified by rapid technological developments. Most mainstream explanations of recent turbulence focus on power transitions (the decline of the West and the rise of the rest), the concomitant return to more aggressive forms of power politics, and a backlash against globalization. What strikes us is that many of the explanations ignore what we consider one of the most striking mega trends that is reshaping the dynamics of power: the ongoing process of disintermediation.

The StratMon 2016-2017 analyzes global trends in confrontation, cooperation and conflict based on different datasets. This year the report also contains case studies on Turkey, Moldova and The rise and fall of ISIS. Chapters analyzing the many faces of political violence and 'the other side of the security coin' are also included.

Still in dangerous waters since the shock of the attempted military coup in July 2016, the behavior of The Republic of Turkey – long considered an important strategic partner for the West – has become increasingly unpredictable. Could Turkey really bid “adieu” to the West in coming years, or perhaps even months? What kinds of paths lay ahead of a possible Turkish “pivot” away from the West? What does this mean for the West’s strategic interests in the region?

Still in dangerous waters since the shock of the attempted military coup in July 2016, the behavior of The Republic of Turkey – long considered an important strategic partner for the West – has become increasingly unpredictable. Could Turkey really bid “adieu” to the West in coming years, or perhaps even months? What kinds of paths lay ahead of a possible Turkish “pivot” away from the West? What does this mean for the West’s strategic interests in the region?

Authored by Dr. Barin Kayaoğlu of the American University of Iraq, this year’s study entitled “A Farewell to the West? Turkey’s Possible Pivot in the Aftermath of the July 2016 Coup Attempt” explores the conditions that could lead Turkey to change its foreign policy direction in the near future, exploring four distinctive possibilities that could all have important implications for Europe, and the wider world.